Dementia in the News

January 17, 2019

It doesn’t take a huge stretch of the mind to understand why caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease is challenging — especially when that someone is a loved one.

It can be physically taxing work, particularly in later stages of the disease when the person needs more and more help with daily functioning. The disease progresses, so care strategies that may work one day may need to be re-written the next.

January 8, 2019

Research on Alzheimer’s has mainly focused on Caucasians. New findings, however, suggest the disease process that leads to dementia may differ in African–Americans. According to a study published Monday in JAMA Neurology, the brains of African–Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer’s have less buildup of a protein called tau—one of the two hallmark proteins that characterize the disease.

December 10, 2018

Growing up, Emily German looked up to her mother as a fierce role model who effortlessly juggled family, friends and a successful career.

In the 1980s and ’90s, Linda Larsen German had worked her way up the corporate ladder in Manhattan, helping to grow the Liz Claibornebusiness into a Fortune 500 company before leaving to start her own ventures. She was a natural-born leader with a quick mind.

December 3, 2018

Dr. Francisco Lopera was a young medical resident in Antioquia, Colombia when he encountered his first familial Alzheimer’s patient in the mid 1980s. The patient, a man from a local village, was only 47 years old. Over the next few years, Lopera would meet more and more patients like him—all middle-aged adults with severe memory problems.

November 21, 2018

Under the best of circumstances, it's hard to live up to holiday expectations of unswerving, picture-perfect traditions and family bliss. Sisters feud about hosting. Uncle Pete has too much wine. Nephew Max wants to talk about the election.

November 14, 2018

The spouses arriving for the Wednesday afternoon caregivers’ class at the Penn Memory Center in Philadelphia had something on their minds even before Alison Lynn, the social worker leading the session, could start the conversation.

October 30, 2018

Once again researchers have found evidence of the critical role quality sleep plays on our overall health. And addressing the common causes of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) could have huge implications for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.

October 22, 2018

Recruitment and retention in clinical studies for Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the biggest hurdles in the path to a cure or prevention for this devastating disease. From strict eligibility requirements and invasive and time-consuming procedures, to the need for study partners for people already with dementia to encouraging people without symptoms to participate, the challenges are substantial.

October 16, 2018

For the past few decades, researchers have been busy uncovering genetic variants associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1]. But there’s still a lot to learn about the many biological mechanisms that underlie this devastating neurological condition that affects as many as 5 million Americans [2].

October 15, 2018

Some patients refuse to answer. Many doctors don’t ask. Family members worry about offending a suffering loved one. As the number of Americans with dementia rises, health professionals are grappling with when and how to pose the question: “Do you have guns at home?”